Introducing : Tanya Gilchrist

Tanya first came to financial planning over 13 years ago. She started out her working life at the IHC, then a retirement village while training to be
a social worker and eventually getting a job that involved ensuring college age children had the best possible opportunity to stay at school. It was
the first “wrap-around” service locally, making sure that all the agencies who needed to be involved with a family were.

After this Tanya worked at Fulton Hogan improving her administration skills, photography skills and “stop/go” skills, it was lots of fun but didn’t really fulfil her passion to help people. It was also here that she started her Bachelor of Business Studies (Finance), which then took a diversion into the Graduate Diploma in Business Studies (Personal Financial Planning).

After being introduced to a local financial adviser (while working for an accountant), she got her first taste of what it was like to help people with their money, and she loved it. The other benefit to giving financial advice was looking forwards not backwards!

Due to wanting to be part of a larger group she began looking for a group of like-minded advisers to join. After having met with a couple of the financial advisers from Decision Makers while at her other business Tanya was eagar to join the bigger group, as she could see that there would be big benefits to her and her clients alike. Soon after her move to Decision Makers she received her designation as a Certified Financial Planner CFPCM, which is an international recognition of excellence.

One of the main benefits of joining a larger group was to have advisers with different strengths that complement each other. As part of the Decision Makers family she is involved in the running of the website and social media. If you have any ideas for what she could write about please let her know, it doesn’t need to be about investments. Also if you have family members or friends who ask you money questions you don’t know the answer too, she is happy to help.

Tanya is currently the committee chair for the local branch of Motor Neurone Disease Association New Zealand. This is a role that has been borne out of too much contact with the disease, starting in the 1980s with her Nana and then her friend and her family (it is only familial in 5-10% of cases) and her husband’s friend. There is currently no one cause and no cure. If you would like to know more, please check their website (it is called Lou Gehrig’s disease or ALS in the USA). www.mnda.org.nz

Tanya is mother of three, a teenager, a tweenaged and a 7-year-old, a wife, and has a hazard in the office by the name of Milo (a very loveable chocolate lab who enjoys sleeping on the floor, blocking her chair so she can’t leave without her!).